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Last Week I had an Expensive Experience as a Denier

Last week we cruised to Mexico with our two adult children. Huge carbon footprint, but the GW deniers won’t mind. I got some insight into their attitude on this cruise.
I like whales. Near the tip of Baja California and into the Sea of Cortez to Puerto Vallarta, there should be many sightings, if the whales are truly there. Along about the 5th day, I was one of the few who hadn’t seen any sign of whales. My wife came up and sat beside me, said the kids had been watching whales on the other side of the ship (It’s always the other side), and pointed out the window “There’s one now”. But I didn’t turn fast enough or lack faith, I didn’t see it.
Since I saw no whales in hours of looking, I began to doubt they were there, even their existence – I was ‘The whale denier.’ I’m a scientist, and if I can’t see the evidence, the data, then I don’t believe. Perhaps they became extinct last year. Perhaps the cruise ship companies had a conspiracy perpetrating their sightings — they had a lot to lose if there were no more whales to be seen.
So I developed a little empathy for those poor frustrated scientists who, just from an inability to think about theory or believe the observations don’t believe that AGW exists.
I developed a new theory: the engines on our huge ship forced the whales away. Most sightings were of spouts miles away. I tested it by going snorkeling on a small sailboat. Sure enough, soon there were several whales cruising along about 100 yards away. To a scientist this is data, verifying that whales exist and are right there. So I abandoned my denial as quickly as possible, I don’t like to be wrong.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..